Leading mobile telephone operator Grameenphone's manpower cut would have negative consequences for the telecommunication sector, which could dampen its growth, the top boss of the telecom regulator said Tuesday.

Zia Ahmed, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), said his commission has sent a letter to the top mobile phone operator recently, asking the company to provide details on its employee retrenchment plan.

He also said they will even contact GP`s parent company Telenor Group as to why its Bangladesh subsidiary is slashing jobs in the country.

He said the company has reputation in the context of employment management and compliance of other regulations, but its recent move will impact negatively on the sector.

GP officials estimated that the lone listed mobile phone company axed around 1,500 employees in the last few years-a figure FE could not verify.

Around 4,800 employees- both permanent and contractual - are working in different departments of the country's leading mobile phone operator.

The GP said it has sought more time from the regulator before it responds to the query.

Kazi Monirul Kabir, Chief Communication Officer of Grameenphone, said that his company took the redundancy initiative last year.

"This is not job cut, it is an initiative of minimising redundancy that is a normal business process," Mr Kabir said.

"This kind of redundancy occurs when a company gets maturity after a long period in business," he said, adding that "it is also a global practice".

Mr Kabir, however, insisted that his company was slashing jobs by offering full benefits as per the contract.

He also mentioned that they are giving more benefit than they deserve, even it waive the loan of employees borrowed from the company during their service period.

Apart from core departments, the company has some logistic and supported departments in the capital Dhaka and elsewhere of the country.

The people, who have lost their jobs, were mostly working in sales and services departments on contractual basis, Grameenphone (GP) insiders said.

The operator is slashing job in two ways- by winding up logistic departments in some areas or reducing the number of employees from the existing ones.